EXTENDING THE LEGACY PLANN I NG AMERICA'S CAP ITAL FOR THE 21ST C ENT URY Introduction two A Framework for Change five Building on the Past thirteen Unifying the City and the Core nineteen Museums, Memorials and the federal workplace twenty-five Waterfronts and Open Spaces thirty-three Transportation thirty-nine Hometown and Region forty-nine implementation fifty-five Conclusion sixty-one planning Policies sixty-two map of Key locations sixty-six introduction ashington has been described as “a city of magnificent distances,” and few who have seen it would disagree. As impressive as its buildings and monuments is its remarkable openness. WIts broad avenues and expansive public spaces are reminders of America’s democratic values, symbolizing a government that is accessible to its people and a nation with room to grow. “To change a wilder­ ness into a city, to erect and beautify buildings...to that degree of perfection necessary to receive the seat of government of so extensive an empire” — that is how Pierre L’Enfant described his vision for Washington. In every direction are reminders of a larger order of things that say “America’s Capital.” Now imagine that same city so jammed with tourists that visiting the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and other national monuments becomes a numbing ordeal; a city immobilized by cars and buses, where precious open space is routinely devoured by chaotic development; a city sharply divided between a federal precinct for tourists and government workers, and commercial and residential districts for everyone else. These are not alarmist fantasies but a plausible description of things to come unless Washington redefines its Monumental Core, which extends from the steps of the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery, and from the White House to the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. Laid out by Pierre L’Enfant in , then refined and amplified by the McMillan Commission in , this is the Washington of postcards and movies and the evening news, the Washington that everyone comes to see. Over million people visit the nation’s capital each year, a number that is expected to double by the middle of the next century. Most of these visitors flock to the museums and memorials around the Mall. Yet now that the last Mall site has been committed, locations for a dozen new museums and as many as new memorials and monuments must be found elsewhere in the city. Even with pressure for leaner government, new homes for some Cabinet departments and perhaps the Supreme Court will have to be built. The flurry of new embassies, consulates and foreign trade missions, evidence of Washington’s prominence as an international city, will also have to be accommodated. With a farsighted plan, these new buildings can be located where they will expand the local economy and enrich community life instead of being dropped helter­ skelter onto whatever site happens to be available. Extending the Legacy is such a plan. Prepared by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), the federal government’s planning agency in the District of Columbia and surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia, it addresses the problems of the Monumental Core with bold proposals for transporta­ tion, community revitalization, public building and open space, including miles of connected public waterfront on both sides of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. The Monumental Core is the symbolic heart of the nation and the physical expression of our Constitution with its three separate branches of government. It is also our national gathering place, where parades and protests and national celebrations occur, where citizens go to observe government in action and to appreciate the nation’s cultural and scientific achievements. And it is the economic center of Washington, where hundreds of thousands of people work and live. Yet Extending the Legacy does more than preserve what is traditional and familiar. It redefines the Monumental Core to include adjacent portions of North, South and East Capitol streets. It reclaims and reconnects the city’s waterfront, from Georgetown on the Potomac River to the National Arboretum on the Anacostia. It corrects old problems by removing portions of the Southeast/Southwest Freeway, adjacent rail­ road tracks and several bridges that have divided neighborhoods and dismembered Washington for decades. It addresses the District’s urgent need for jobs, housing and mobility. And it creates opportunities for new parks, offices and transit centers in all quadrants of the city. The plan combines bold moves at an urban scale with precise surgical ones appropriate for neighborhoods. It is neither a policy document nor an abstract theoretical exercise. It is a physical plan informed by a vision of what Washington could be. America has the resources and the imagination to create a more efficient and beautiful capital and to strengthen its position as a great international city. Extending the Legacy is a key instrument in bringing about this transformation. Clockwise, from upper left: Revived Anacostia waterfront • The Capitol is the center of the expanded Monumental Core • New bridge at East Capitol Street • Site for new memorial on 10th Street, SW A framework for change ˜ Extending the legacy represents the third act in a continuing planning drama that began over 200 years ago, when President George Washington commissioned Pierre L’Enfant to lay out the new capital. Like the L’Enfant and McMillan plans, it looks ahead 50 to 100 years. And like them, it offers a framework for future development. A framework for change A framework is not a blueprint that renders the future in precise and immutable detail. It is more like a map with a few dramatic highlights, corresponding to the best locations for museums, parks, bridges, transit stations and other public assets. It is both a guide to the big picture and a defense against the myopic quick fix. This critical distinction was explained nearly a century ago by President Theodore Roosevelt in a speech to the American Institute of Architects. “What I have said does not mean that we shall go, here in Washington for instance, into immediate and extrava­ gant expenditures on public buildings. All that it means is that whenever hereafter a public building is provided for and erected, it should be erected in accordance with a carefully thought-out plan adopted long before and that it should be not only beautiful in itself, but fitting in its relation to the whole scheme of public buildings, the parks and the drives of the District.” Legacy began as a search for a “carefully thought-out plan” that would ensure the orderly development of the Monumental Core. In the mid-s it became clear that such orderly development was threatened by a flood of new museums and memorials, primarily along the Mall. The East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, the National Air & Space Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum had all opened within a decade, and a dozen more important proposals, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, were in the works. At that rate, the Mall’s dis­ tinctive openness would soon disappear under a mantle of marble and glass. NCPC prepared several studies exploring alternatives to overbuilding on the Mall. One showed the north­ west quadrant of the city jammed with new museums, memorials and office buildings, arranged in tight, Beaux-Arts configurations. Another relocated the Supreme Court to the Potomac Tidal Basin and framed it with conventional Neoclassical civic architecture. These approaches were monumental and remote, barely acknowledging the existence of non­ governmental Washington. Although largely hypothetical, these planning studies sparked intense debate about the competing claims of open space and new development in the heart of Washington. In the end, NCPC made preserving and enhancing the open space around the Mall the cornerstone of its new plan and locating new museums and memorials outside the Mall the principal tool for achieving it. The Mall is a unique national space, the Commission reasoned, a summary of our democratic ideals and achievements, and must be protected from excessive development. The plan recenters Washington on the Capitol and extends development to the four quadrants of the city. This simple pencil sketch was the catalyst for Extending the Legacy. In -, NCPC invited a team of prominent architects, urban designers, economists and transportation planners to review the staff’s initial studies. Think about the whole city, the consultants urged, not just the federal enclave. While preserving Washington’s ceremonial heart was commendable, the opportunity to address some of the city’s other urgent needs — jobs, housing, transit — was unprecedented. What began as a federal facilities study gradually evolved into a vision for an expanded Monumental Core. A problem had been transformed into an opportunity. NCPC conducted workshops and community meetings to hear the public’s views about replanning the Monumental Core. The sessions took place in schools, libraries and The Legacy exhibit at Union Station encouraged visitors to share their community centers, at night and on weekends. visions of Washington’s future. Once again, consultants reviewed and commented on the staff’s work and made several important suggestions. The most crucial was a simple axial diagram showing the Capitol as the center of Washington, with bold lines radiating north, south, east and west. This single move redefined the plan, pushing it east and south toward the Anacostia River and enlarging the traditional boundaries of the Monumental Core. Unlike earlier plans, Extending the Legacy goes beyond the Mall and the ceremonial enclaves and expands the definition of “federal interest” to include adjacent neighborhoods, waterfronts, parks and gateways. Like the earlier McMillan Commission, the consultants not only supplied design ideas, but also gave a fledgling plan visibility, credibility and political clout.